M y name is Jorge Prieto. I joined Freemasonry in March 2017, was Raised to the Degree of Master Mason in December 2018, and entered a Mark Lodge in December 2021.
In Spain, the fact that Freemasonry was systematically persecuted and eliminated during forty years of dictatorship, has resulted in that neither the number of Freemasons is as large, nor its social weight as significant, as in other western countries. Therefore, many Spanish Freemasons, like me, approached Freemasonry, not by personal knowledge of one of its members (as it happens in the United Kingdom, for example), but from the interest aroused by reading books and web pages on history and philosophy. The reason that encouraged me to approach a Lodge was that Freemasonry offered me a space to share with other men who were interested in their personal development and in the improvement of society, a space where to live the ideals of freedom, equality, and fraternity, away from superstitions or partisan interests, and regardless of their country of origin, faith, political inclination, or social status. An organization devoted to defending human dignity, tolerance, and equality, with the aim of promoting truth, social progress, and the moral and intellectual development of the human being, was the place where I felt I belonged before I even entered.
Once I was an active member of a Blue Lodge, I could see that if the first three Degrees contained the basic knowledge of the Masonic path, once they were completed, multiple paths of specialization were opened, entering other Masonic Orders, ancient and prestigious, in which special emphasis is placed on concrete, and different, aspects of human virtues. And one of them was the Mark.
There are many messages enclosed in the symbolism of its beautiful ceremony, perhaps the most remarkable being that of reminding us that we should not judge a book by its cover, that we are all valuable, that we are all important.
I was encouraged to consider joining, first of all because of its characteristic of being widely known as “the friendly Degree”, due to the atmosphere of special affability that reigns in its Lodges, without this being confused with any carelessness when carrying out the Ritual, far from it.
In addition, for a lover of Masonic orthodoxy, I found it very attractive that it was a Degree with a long and solid history since it was formally constituted in the middle of the eighteenth century in the United Kingdom, probably by Scottish inspiration, as an extension and completion of the Second Degree of symbolic Freemasonry.
Thirdly, I was told that the joining ceremony, like those of the first Degrees, was of a genuine initiatory character in that the candidate represented a role in which he was subjected to different tests and obligations that generated in him an emotional restlessness from which, if he was victorious, he acquired the recognition of being accepted by his Brothers.
En tercer lugar, se me adelantó que la ceremonia de ingreso, al igual que las de los primeros Grados, era de auténtico carácter iniciático, en cuanto que el candidato representaba un papel en el que era sometido a distintas pruebas y compromisos que generaban en él una inquietud emocional de la que, si salía victorioso, adquiría el reconocimiento de ser aceptado por sus hermanos.
And last but not least, I must confess that the human and Masonic quality of the Mark Master Masons that I knew was a determining element of requesting my entry into the Mark because I knew that with such mentors, with such companions, whom I admired and respected for the example they gave, I would be able to travel much better and further on this path of personal growth in which Freemasons seek to transform ourselves into better men.
There are many messages enclosed in the symbolism of its beautiful ceremony, perhaps the most remarkable being that of reminding us that we should not judge a book by its cover, that we are all valuable, that we are all important, that we can all even be essential to the successful achievement of a project and, therefore, that we must be much quicker to open our arms to our fellow human beings, than in judging them.
Each and every one of the reasons that brought me closer to applying for admission to the Mark Lodge were substantiated. All friends and Brothers, we represent with enthusiasm and sympathy the ceremonies written three hundred years ago; we make the candidates live the psychodrama of exalting self-esteem, and then we go to our homes, families, and friends, inspired to be every day better Masons and better men.
